...And I had a bitch of a time trying to get it the way I wanted it. It was worth it though.
I wanted a cheap Linux box, so when I saw the Fry's ad in the newspaper with the one-day only sale on a box with Linspire for $99, I rushed over. By the time I got there, though, they were sold out. So, I ask - "What's the closest thing you've got?" He laughed a little and said, "Good question. I've got the same box with Windows XP Home for $50 more."
Seriously - how could I pass that up?
Turned out it was an open-box item. The regular price was $499, they had already reduced it to $199 for the new, unopened units. They gave me an additional discount to get this one off their floor. I also bought a 512MB RAM upgrade which was on sale for $29.
Once I got home, I started figuring out what the specs on this thing were. For $150, I actually got a far better deal than I had anticipated. All this together would cost more than I paid for it:
1.8 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+
EMD K7SOM+ motherboard w/512 cache
128MB RAM (added the 512, totalled 576 after I allocated memory for the video)
Embedded video (I can easily upgrade this via the PCI slot)
CD-RW Burner
Floppy drive
2 USB ports on the side, 2 in back
Built-in 10/100 Ethernet and modem
Cheap mouse and keyboard
Cheap speakers
Windows XP Home
Nero Express
The power supply is on the loud side, that's the major thing I still have to replace. After that I'll put SuSE Linux on the D drive, and I'm set.
After my $1600 ASUS laptop started having problems (sticking keys, blown sound-card, busted wireless mouse), it's really refreshing to get something cheap that works.
I wanted a cheap Linux box, so when I saw the Fry's ad in the newspaper with the one-day only sale on a box with Linspire for $99, I rushed over. By the time I got there, though, they were sold out. So, I ask - "What's the closest thing you've got?" He laughed a little and said, "Good question. I've got the same box with Windows XP Home for $50 more."
Seriously - how could I pass that up?
Turned out it was an open-box item. The regular price was $499, they had already reduced it to $199 for the new, unopened units. They gave me an additional discount to get this one off their floor. I also bought a 512MB RAM upgrade which was on sale for $29.
Once I got home, I started figuring out what the specs on this thing were. For $150, I actually got a far better deal than I had anticipated. All this together would cost more than I paid for it:
1.8 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2200+
EMD K7SOM+ motherboard w/512 cache
128MB RAM (added the 512, totalled 576 after I allocated memory for the video)
Embedded video (I can easily upgrade this via the PCI slot)
CD-RW Burner
Floppy drive
2 USB ports on the side, 2 in back
Built-in 10/100 Ethernet and modem
Cheap mouse and keyboard
Cheap speakers
Windows XP Home
Nero Express
The power supply is on the loud side, that's the major thing I still have to replace. After that I'll put SuSE Linux on the D drive, and I'm set.
After my $1600 ASUS laptop started having problems (sticking keys, blown sound-card, busted wireless mouse), it's really refreshing to get something cheap that works.